Marriage:There were other grounds for
attacking Islam and the Holy Prophet of Islam by the
Christian missionaries. They contended Jesus Christ did not
indulge in sex at all, as he did not marry. To retrain from
marrying is not a good example, as the world would come to
an end in one generation if that example were universally
followed. Abstinence from lawful marriage is going against
nature, if there is any natural urge in man. In any case,
the present day research by some of the Christians
themselves shows that Jesus Christ had married Mary
Magdalene, either before his crucifixion or afterwards when
he migrated to Kashmir. A few years ago, a German magazine
published the photograph of a present-day family in Kashmir
which claims descent from Jesus Christ, and has proof of
it.

Polygamy:As for polygamy, it was
practised by almost all other prophets of the Bible, who
sometimes had hundreds of wives. It is permitted in Islam in
exceptional circumstances. For example, when there is an
excess of women over men, such as during wars which create
widows and orphans who need a husband and a father besides
financial sustenance.

Even situations can arise when girls
of marriageable age cannot find husbands within the
community of their faith. In such a situation, polygamy is
the only honourable solution. Even then Islam puts a maximum
of four wives provided the husband can treat them all
alike, failing which he should have only one wife (The Holy
Quran: 4:3). Societies which did not allow it suffered
complete breakdown of the moral fibre of the nation. As far
back as the 1920's, Judge Lindsay in his book - A Case
for Polygamy - estimated that there were, in the small
society of England, as many as four million women compelled
to become prostitutes, because they could not find husbands.
A woman always needs the protection and security of a
husband and a home to bring up her children, which is her
biggest natural urge. It is the man who shuns the
restrictions and obligations of marriage. If indulgence in
sex is possible outside the obligations of marriage, he is
all for it. So where there is a preponderance of women over
men, and no polygamy is allowed, free sex springs up and it
destroys the moral and spiritual health of the society. It
is a terrible thing to happen. And who would care to marry
widows and take over their children to look after, unless it
is out of compassion which is recommended in the Qur'an by
allowing polygamy (The Holy Quran: 4:3).

If the West is to avoid complete
breakdown of the institution of marriage, and seriously
wishes to check free extramarital sex, unwed mothers,
bastard children, broken homes, juvenile delinquency,
drunkenness to drown sorrows, and daily increasing crime, it
should consider allowing polygamy.

Divorce:As for divorce, in the times
of Hazrat Mirza Sahib, the Christian missionaries used to
scoff at it as leading to moral laxity. Jesus Christ
pronounced that the marriage knot tied in Heaven could not
be untied on earth, except in the case of adultery. Now
legalised divorce on general grounds is rampant in the West,
which is more numerous than in the Muslim society.
Separation of the husband and wife, which is much worse than
divorce, is more common. What a sad state of affairs for
those to find fault with the divorce, hedged in by
conditions which Islam allowed! Things have changed. There
is no need for us now to defend Islam on this ground as it
was the case with Hazrat Mirza Sahib and his followers in
the early decades of the past century. The West has learnt
by bitter experience that Islam was right.

Slavery and
Concubinage:On these grounds, too, Islam
was attacked viciously in the time of Hazrat Mirza Sahib. As
wrong notions about them persist, both among Muslims and
non-Muslims, even today, it is necessary to touch upon them
very briefly. [For a
detailed discussion, the reader is referred to the masterly
book The Religion of Islam by Maulana Muhammad
Ali.]

Any reader of the Holy Qur'an would
know that the Holy Qur'an puts the highest premium on the
freeing of slaves, which were held in custody in almost
every home in Arabia. For the future, slavery was totally
prohibited by Islam. It was made clear that human liberty
could be taken away only in the case of prisoners taken in
battle:

"It is not fit for a prophet
that he should take prisoners unless he has fought and
triumphed in the land. You desire the frail goods of this
world, while Allah desires (for you) the Hereafter"
(8:67-68).

Slavery was prohibited by the verse
quoted above, except for prisoners of war, which could be
taken only after a battle. Even these were not to be sold
into slavery, as was the pre-Islamic custom, nor were they
to be kept permanently  as made clear in another
verse:

"Then when you have overcome
(them), make prisoners and afterwards set them free as a
favour or for ransom" (47:4).

May the choicest blessings of Allah
descend upon the Holy Prophet, who adopted, in most cases,
the former course of freeing the captives as a favour,
except in the case of the seventy prisoners of the battle of
Badr when light ransom was taken. The Holy Prophet, peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him, being the perfect
exemplar, thus set an example of both the
alternatives.

As for slaves already existing in
Muslim homes from the days of Jahiliyya (ignorance),
their freeing was put at a high premium. Thus details of
'high virtue' (Birr) in 2:177 [of the Holy
Quran] include 'to set slaves free'. Similarly, in
deploring man for not taking 'the uphill road' of moral
progress, it puts in the premier position 'to free a slave'
(90:13). And there are other occasions when the freeing of a
slave is accepted as a restitution for the violation of
Divine law (e.g., 58:3). What more could be done? Even the
State is directed to spend a part of the funds raised by
Zakat (poor-rate) on purchasing the freedom of slaves
(9:60).

It is absurd to say that while Islam
sets so much store on the freeing of slaves, it also allowed
the taking of slaves. Slavery is forbidden, as shown above,
and the only thing allowed is the capturing of prisoners in
a battle; even they are to be freed without ransom or with
light ransom. The Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah
be upon him, even freed prisoners for teaching children and
adults.

Concubinage:If there is to be no slavery,
then there can be no concubinage either, for concubines are
nothing but female slaves turned into mistresses. There is
no question of buying female slaves in the market. As
for the female prisoners of war, they are to be set free
without ransom, or with light ransom, as in the case of male
captives. But the trouble about the female prisoners of war
is that if they are sent back, even free, their menfolk are
not prepared to take them back as they assume that the women
must have been ravished by the captors, as was the common
practice among Arabs before Islam, and as is the common lot
of female prisoners today in all non-Islamic countries, even
of the West.

Such disgraceful treatment of the
female prisoners of war was not possible in the Holy
Prophet's time or even under the Early Caliphate. When the
moral standards were of the highest possible order. Not a
single case is to be found in the history of those
periods.

"And whoever among you cannot
afford to marry free believing women, (let him marry)
such of your believing maidens as your right hands
possess. And Allah knows best your faith (i.e.,do
not set high standards for the faith of such women). Some
of you are like others: So marry them with the permission
of their masters, and give them their dowries justly
then if they are guilty of adultery when they are
taken to marriage, they shall suffer half the punishment
for free married women " (4:25).

This important verse requires the
following elucidation:

(1) If a Muslim cannot afford
to marry a free believing woman, he may marry one
of those whom your right hands
possess.

(2) The much misunderstood term
whom your right hands possess has been much
exploited. It is taken to mean concubines. To describe a
concubine bought from the market or from her master as
one 'whom your right hands possess' is a complete
misnomer. The very use of the words whom your right hands
have taken possession of (which is the correct rendering
of the Arabic phrase mimma malakat aimanukum)
clearly points to women captured in battle. That is
where the right hand is used to take possession of a
prisoner. To apply that phrase to a woman bought from a
slave market or from a master is totally
unwarrantable.

3) The Holy Qur'an still speaks of
such a woman being taken in marriage with the permission
of her master. Who is this master? It was the practice of
the Holy Prophet and the latter-day Muslim commanders to
distribute all prisoners, male orfemale,
to the soldiers as part of the spoils of war. They
were kept in homes, sometimes in a better way than the
master or the mistress of the Muslim home, but always at
least on the same scale of living. It is this 'master'
spoken of in the verse under consideration. If they are
now kept in a war prison, the Government holding them is
the master.

(4) Why are those whom your
right hands possess mentioned in this and other
places separately from free women? That is also explained
in this very verse. If the former are guilty of adultery
after marriage, their punishment is to be half that of
free married women. It is because of the separate
treatment under the Quranic law of these women who have
come recently from a non-Muslim society and, therefore,
the same high moral standards cannot be expected from
them, that their separate mention was
required.

Incidentally, the punishment of
stoning to death for married men or women found guilty of
adultery cannot possibly be permissible in Islam:

(a) The Holy Qur'an, which is
the paramount authority on Muslim law, does not prescribe
stoning to death for any crime whatsoever.

(b) It prescribes instead one
hundred strokes for adultery, whether committed by man or
women, married or unmarried.

(c) One hundred strokes can be
halved as required in verse 4:25 of the Holy Qur'an, but
not the stoning to death.

Anyway, because of the clear ban on
sexual indulgence outside marriage (24:33) and the
requirement that even the women 'whom your right hands
possess' must be married properly (4:25), concubinage is
simply not permissible in Islam.

The Holy Prophet, peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him, being the perfect exemplar, properly
married those female prisoners of war whom he took as wives.
Much has been made by the Christian critics of the case of
Mary the Copt, who was presented to the Holy Prophet by the
King of Egypt. That he had married her too is now an
established fact beyond doubt.

We will end by saying that the
Promised Messiah and his followers were, and still are,
dedicated defenders of Islam, the Holy Prophet and the Holy
Qur'an. The defence of Islam was the first task entrusted by
the Holy Qur'an to the Promised Messiah (61: 9, 10, and 14),
and he discharged his task to perfection. It is his
inspiration which motivates his followers to rise to the
defence of Islam, the Holy Prophet and the Holy Qur'an
against all attacks and criticism.